


A Lost Mission

by JustKate



Category: Haikyuu!!
Genre: Alternate Universe - Space, F/M, M/M
Language: English
Status: In-Progress
Published: 2020-11-04
Updated: 2020-12-05
Packaged: 2021-03-08 19:07:55
Rating: Not Rated
Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply
Chapters: 6
Words: 8,469
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/27391702
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/JustKate/pseuds/JustKate
Summary: Oikawa had always been confident in his work. But after a mistake that sent his coworkers lost into the unknowns of space he's not sure how to come back from it.-------------------------------------------------------------“How can you trust me so easily? How can you be so relaxed?” This shifted Hanamiki’s demeanor a bit, but he continued to smile.“Tohru you are the most stubborn person I know, and prideful. One little upset isn’t going to stop you. Now if it was anyone else I would be a bit worried,” he laughed.
Relationships: Iwaizumi Hajime/Oikawa Tooru
Comments: 1
Kudos: 4





	1. Chapter 1

White walls, white ceiling, white sheets. That’t been the view for Oikawa the past two weeks. Where he could drown in the nothingness of it all. Sounds dreadful but it’s the escape Oikawa had been wanting for so long, and had only recently gotten the chance. He had mixed feelings about being here though. He enjoyed the numbing stillness the facility offered but it seemed that stillness would only come when he had to be sedated from the panic attacks. The ones that would start in his core until his entire body was shaking with tremors until he couldn’t breathe. Those sedatives felt like cold liquid seeping into his veins up and down his arms and legs that would then blur his vision with a heavy fog until he finally passed out. That’s when he got some peace. Otherwise the rest of the time was spent talking to therapists who were supposed to help and tell him this was all normal, and what happened wasn’t his fault. They were of course paid to say that, to do their best to convince us of that. We were valuable and needed to be back to work as soon as possible. So they hoped with enough positive thinking and influence we could convince ourselves that everything was fine. Most were naive enough to believe it. Oikawa on the other hand wasn’t naive, but he had a lot of pride and he would make sure he was out of here by the end of the two weeks. Because according to the manual two weeks was all that was needed for employees to be cleared after “health or mental concerns”. What a load of crap. 

That second week when the attacks seemed to have officially come to an end, he spent that time playing silly games in the community room or trying to sleep in his room. Surrounded by those white walls sleeping without help didn’t come too easy. The nights were restless, with nightmares almost every night which meant he was just as tired now as he was when he first arrived. Nightmares didn’t fall under mental concerns though which meant that he was good to go in the eyes of the company. 

The door swiftly opened and in came the doctor, Shimizu Kiyoko. She was a thin woman with dark hair and glasses. Oikawa had seen her a few times at headquarters when they did test runs on the new recruits. 

“How are we feeling today?” Shimizu smiled, analyzing the chart she grabbed off the door when she walked in. 

“Just peachy” Oikawa said with a smile all while watching her expression as she continued to eye his results. 

“Well things look pretty good…haven’t had any attacks since your 5th day? Thats good.” 

“Seems like it…so I can go then? I have a lot of things to do” 

Shimizu leans against the wall across from the bed he sat on adjusting her glasses better on her face. “I think so, a couple things first. Going to give you an antidepressant along with a sleeping aid.” 

Oikawa sits off the small bed, happy to be saying goodbye to the hard mattress soon, and stretches. Shimizu scrabbles some words on a small pad, rips it off, and walks over to him handing over the slip. 

“Get these filled this afternoon, and start taking them. They should help with the attacks, and of course sleeping. It can be tempting to take more than the required dose for the sleeping pills but it’s best not too. You’ll feel pretty groggy the next day.” 

Oikawa looks over the slip, not recognizing the names of the pills, but nodding as she goes into more description. Take with a glass of water, preferably with food, no drinking…the concerns went on but by that point he was just ready to leave. 

Another nurse had since come in bringing the few belongings he had at the time. Pair of slacks, a wrinkled button down, along with his work badge and cell. He went to grab his cell to check for any messages but the dead battery flickered instead, shrugging he threw it back on the pile and looked back to where Shimizu was still going on about potential side effects. 

“I got it doc, don’t worry about it, if I have any problems I’ll call or I’ll go to the infirmary on base. I’m sure Yachi there will know what to do.” She gruntled a little in response, but let it go. 

It wasn’t too much longer and he was exiting the building into the sun, wincing at how bright it was. After two weeks inside, it took a few more seconds to adjust to the outdoors. A honking to the side pulled his attention and against the curb was a silver beat up car with a scratch that ran along the passenger door. Inside Iwaizumi shifted in his seat waving for Oikawa to get in. 

“Long time no see Iwa-chan”, he opens the door shifting inside and quickly buckling his seatbelt avoiding any eye contact. “Hope you didn’t forget about me.”

He could sense the slight uneasiness from Iwaizumi as he analyzed his side profile, obviously trying to read him. “I’m fine Iwa, don’t worry, let’s just head to base”.

“What? Base? I’m taking you home, its been two weeks. Work can wait a few more hours”, eyes wide that he would suggest such a crazy thing. But at the same time, Iwaizumi expected this type of response. “Don’t you want to clean up, and drop off some stuff?”

“Stuff? What stuff could I have possibly had Iwaizumi? I was so coldly dropped off against my will by….oh you. So if you will please, can we just head to work, I have a lot of things to catch up on.” His words were harsher then he intended, and he knows that using his full name instead didn’t help, but he was still a little irked that he was the one to help drag him here in the first place. 

Iwaizumi didn’t respond, but kept his usual face of disdain, eyebrows furrowed and pulled out of the parking lot. The ride to the base wasn’t far, only about 15 min on the back roads surrounded by flat fields and open spaces. They passed a few large building meant for storage and where the engineers worked on the latest prototypes. Finally they hit the main drag which was only needed for a minute before turning into the front gate. The large sign reading Mission Space in large red letters, and underneath in slightly smaller font “The future is out there”. Oikawa couldn’t help but sneer at the words. Pulling up to the security hub both handed over their identification badges before being let through. A few more moments and Iwaizumi pulled into a lot and parked the car. Two weeks; that’s how long it’s been. Not a terrible amount of time, but just enough to know there was going to be a lot of work to catch up on. Oikawa was also a bit nervous. His blow up wasn’t huge and not many were around, but he knew that word would have easily gotten around. He sighed and unbuckled. 

Iwaizumi watching this entire time finally spoke again, “You ready?”

“As I’ll ever be, let’s go find Daichi. I’m sure he is going to have a mouthful.”


	2. Chapter 2

The ride on the elevator up to the top floor of the building seemed to take a lot longer than usual. Getting to headquarters around lunch time made the building bustle with more people than usual, so there were various stops on the trip up. The unexpected nerves in Oikawa’s pit also wasn’t helping the situation. He knew he didn’t have much to be nervous about, but he didn’t think he would escape without some type of lecture and that made him fidget more than he normally did. Iwaizumi not having much to do at the moment decided to ride up with him, most likely to keep an extra pair of eyes on him just in case he wasn’t as good as he insisted he was. 

By the last ding of the elevator the only people left were Oikawa, Iwaizumi, and one other person, likely a secretary for one of the few big wigs who worked on the top floor. One of those big wigs happened to be Sawamura Daichi, who was pacing outside of his office door at the end of the hall. Obviously someone else wasn’t looking forward to this talk either. Oikawa and Iwaizumi make it almost all the way down to hall before Daichi looks up, knocking him out of whatever thought he was lost in. 

“Ah Oikawa, good to see you back and at it, nice time off?”

A short laugh escapes Oikawa’s mouth, “Wasn’t exactly a vacation Sawamura, but glad to be back to work regardless.” 

Daichi swiftly nods and then looks at Iwaizumi, “Do you mind waiting outside while we talk?” He nods and walks over to one of the chairs outside of the office door. 

Daichi signals for Oikawa to enter his office following behind him while closing the door. He looks nervous as he walks over to his desk, shuffling around some papers before taking a seat. Oikawa continues to stand hoping that it would make whatever conversation that was about to be had go a bit faster so he could get out, the room already starting to suffocate him. 

Daichi finally looks up, “I know it was a difficult situation back then that we all had to deal with, especially you, but I want to start off by saying and reminding you that what happened wasn’t your fault. I know you felt that it was, but no one here is blaming you. What happened up there was something that none of us could have predicted.” Oikawa scoffs, but he continues. “Regardless we need you back to working on the next mission,” he looks uneasy shifting eyes from Oikawa to his computer, “Director Washijo wants this mission to be the replacement…and he wants it up by the end of next month. He insists that you are to work on the mission.”

It didn’t take long into what he was saying before Oikawa’s face began to burn, the anger starting to build already. 

“Next month?!” Oikawa shouts slamming his hands down on the desk, “What about…I can get them back! I need to be putting all my focus on that, not on another mission! These past two weeks have been a waste of time that I could have used to fix this mess!” 

“Oikawa, it’s a lost cause. Give up and start focusing on this next mission. That’s what we need you to—”

“No! And if I remember correctly you have someone important up there too. If I recall a Michimiya is in that shuttle, someone that you were supposed to be getting married to.” Oikawa retorted back, his words laced with venom,"What about her?”

This obviously hit a nerve, the neutral look Daichi had been showing flipped at the mention of Michimiya and a glaring scowl took over. “Oikawa you need to stop where you are at..I am totally aware of who is on that shuttle, but this is out of your hands and mine. We have to follow orders, and there isn’t anything we can do. My hands are tied.” 

Until that moment Oikawa didn’t realize just how tired Daichi really looked, and he began to regret his outburst. 

Oikawa takes in a deep breath trying to calm his anger, “I don’t want to give up on this quite yet, please Daichi.” 

This seems to defuse Daichi a little and he sighs, “Fine. I’ll tell Washijō that you are going to continue to do some extra work, but I can not have you slacking on this new mission. Your main focus still needs to be on this. But I won’t say no to you staying longer in your day to do whatever you think might help.” Daichi leans back in his chair, exhausted. 

“A regular 8 hour day is so overrated”, Oikawa tried to joke but is just relieved that he gets to continue his work. Daichi seemed contempt with the outcome, knowing that Oikawa would never let his work slide and after a few more statements about the upcoming mission and candidate information, he let Oikawa go with a wave. 

When Oikawa finally walked out of the office, he wasn’t expecting to almost run smack into Iwaizumi. 

“Jeez Iwa-Chan I know you missed me, but some personal space would be nice,” he says as he pushes Iwaizumi back a step with a chuckle. He can feel how tense he is though when he places his hands gently on his shoulder. Oikawa sighs and tries for a quick escape sliding past him knowing just by that touch that a fight was brewing under Iwaizumi’s skin. 

“Don’t tell me you are going back to working overtime Oikawa, you can’t go back to doing this again.” 

Iwaizumi is quick to catch up despite his fast paced walk back to the elevator. 

“Oikawa”, Iwaizumi shouts louder this time grabbing onto his arm to finally make him stop. This outburst caused for a few looks from the few that were wondering the halls, but no one stopped to pay any attention.

Oikwaw sighs, and turns around. “Look Iwa, I need to get this done. I know there is a way to get everyone back. I just have to find it…I was so close.” He looks exasperated but continues, “I can get there again. If I’m spread out for a few weeks working on this and the next mission, so be it, it’s not going to kill me.”

Oikawa could see Iwaizumi’s flinch at that statement, but he ignores it. He knows how much he had worried him over the past several weeks, and he hated seeing him worked up over him but he had to focus on the bigger picture. 

“You might not die, but I’m not sure how much you can take…you already” Iwaizumi stops before he can finish looking flustered. Oikawa couldn’t help but inwardly chuckle, it takes a lot to fluster Iwaizumi.

“Iwa I appreciate the concern”, as he places a reassuring hand on both of Iwaizumi’s shoulder, “but I’m better now. The doc gave me stuff to do whatever stabilizing,” pointing to his head with an eye roll, “and stuff to help me get the sleep I need. I also have you to count on right?” He raises an eyebrow and grins in hopes this will be enough for him to lay off for now. 

Iwaizumi shifts under his hands but sighs giving up. He knows he won’t be getting anywhere else; Oikawa was always so stubborn. “Yea okay, but if I say you need to take a break you take one okay, Shittykawa?” 

Oikawa smiles brightly now, “Yes sir!”, and gives a mocking salute. With that, he quickly turns away before anything else can be said and runs for the elevator jumping in with a group before it heads down. He turns back and gives a wink and a peace sign to a tired looking Iwaizumi left alone in the middle of the hallway.

The rest of the afternoon goes by fairly normal. Oikawa had made it back to his office for the first time in two weeks. He was gearing himself up for it to be a complete mess, remembering how much chaos he caused in the wrath of his last panic attack that sent him on his brief “vacation”. But much to his surprise the papers and books that he remembers shoving off the desk were picked up and neatly organized on his desk. A new chair replaced the one that lost a wheel, and the dirt that was scattered from a broken potted plant was cleaned up. He grimaced at the thought of how uncontrollable he could be during those panic attacks. He was sure the office looked worse than he remembers, and makes a mental note to walk over to Suga’s office sometime soon. He had an inkling he was the one to do the picking up. Once he is sitting at his desk, he begins the process of looking over papers and data that he had collected and started looking over the new mission details that were brought over at some point by a bouncy orange-headed intern. As the hours ticked by, the office lighting shifted from a bright white light, to soft oranges to only the harsh fluorescent light that reflected off everything. After a few growls of hunger from his stomach, Oikawa finally decides it’s time to head home. 

Somehow he remembered where his car was parked after finding his keys stuffed in the second drawer of his desk. The ride home was quiet and took only 20 minutes to return to the apartment he shared with Iwaizumi. He treaded carefully into the living room looking for a sign that he was still awake but the apartment was dark except for the light over the oven. He shuffled over finding a sticky note with Iwaizumi’s scribble saying there was leftover rice. He quickly ate what was left and retreated to his room collapsing on his bed. It sure felt good, he missed the plushness of his mattress and the soft sheets. He laid there in silence, eyes grazing over the shelves that held an assortment of books on them along with some old trophies over to the wall with the tv and movie posters plastered to the wall; most of which were space themed. A few moments later and he’s back up to get ready for bed before settling back under the sheets. It doesn’t take long before he dozes off, hoping for a nightmare-free sleep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Hope everyone enjoys chapter 2! And if you are wondering what happened, don't worry you'll eventually find out!


	3. Chapter 3

Ch. 3 42 Day until Take-Off 

Oikawa wakes up to the alarm on his phone going off. He moans, rolling over grabbing his phone off the nightside table and clicks it off. The screen lights up saying 6:00 AM, an early rise usually but for once Oikawa didn’t feel too tired, happy to see that he finally made it one night without any trouble. How long this would last he wasn’t sure, but he was grateful and took what he got. 

He rolls out of bed finally and exits his bedroom, he can see that Iwaizumi’s door was still closed, but when he makes it to the bathroom he can feel the muggy air and see the mirror defogging telling him that he is already up. He goes through his routine of getting ready, showering and then quickly blow drying his hair so he can get it perfectly quaffed for the day. After changing into his usual work clothes, another random button up from his closet and a fresh pair of slacks that hadn’t quite made their way into the dresser, Oikawa walks into the kitchen where he finds Iwaizumi drinking some tea and reading the paper. 

“Iwa-chan you are such an old mad, reading the paper. Don’t you know you can find all the important news on the internet”

Iwaizumi doesn’t look up and continues to read whatever article ignoring his comment. Oikawa walks over to the stove and finds the kettle with some tea still leftover and an empty mug already placed on the counter for him, he can’t help but smile. Iwa was always taking care of him. He saunters back to the island that Iwaizumi was sitting at, and sits on the neighboring stool and begins checking his email on his phone. They sit in silence like this for the next ten minutes, both casually sipping out of their mugs before Iwaizumi shifts out of his seat and walks over to the sink. 

“Ready to head out, Oikawa?”

Oikawa looks up, “Well I was going to take my own car, I don’t know how long I’ll be at work tonight.”

This obviously doesn’t sit well with Iwaizumi as he just glares back. “Or not, yup I guess I’m going with you.” Oikawa stands up, handing his now empty mug to Iwaizumi and running back to his room to grab his work back. 

As he shuffles around his room trying to remember where he last placed his bag he hears Iwaizumi yell from the kitchen, “Did you pick up your prescriptions yesterday?” Oikawa stops what he is doing wondering how he seems to know everything, but knowing there would be no way around him finds his discarded pants from yesterday and shuffles through the pockets to find the folded up notepad with the scribbled wording that Shimizu gave him. He finally notices his bag half hidden under his desk and grabs it before sauntering out to where Iwaizumi was waiting by the door. And with that they are back in Iwaizumi’s silver car heading back to work. 

When they got to work they both went their separate ways. Iwaizumi heading towards the training department and Oikawa towards the infirmary to find Yachi. The infirmary was located on the second floor at the back of the second wing. For new hires, it could be somewhat hard to find, but Oikawa learned fast how to get there. He always enjoyed Yachi’s company and the days before things became so busy he would always find himself having lunch with her listening to her silly stories. She was always positive and Oikawa liked being around that bubbly personality that would distract him from days that got too hectic. When he got there he found her leaning over Kyoutani stitching up a rather large gash on his forehead. 

“Well, well, look who we have here. Mad Dog-chan are you going around getting into trouble again?” He smirks settling into the rolling stool just far enough in case of a bad reaction. 

Yachi squeaks at the sudden sneak up, but remains composed to finish the last stitch before taping a piece of gauze over it. “You shouldn’t sneak up on people in the infirmary Oikawa, what if I had something sharp in my hand?”

“I don’t think you could make his face look any worse than it already does.” Kyoutani’s sharp gaze shot over but he said nothing, Oikawa putting his hands up in surrender. 

Yachi shakes her head and checks over the bandaging one more time, “You should be good to go, be careful when cleaning around it and come back in a few days, I’ll check the progress.” Kyoutani grunts in response and gets up avoiding any eye contact. 

Yachi finishes cleaning up her station, and then turns to him, “You look good, Oikawa. I’m happy to see you back”. She sniffles, rubbing at her eyes. 

“Yachi don’t cry,” Oikawa jumps from his seat grabbing a tissue from a nearby counter and handing it to Yachi. “I’m totally fine, don’t worry!”

“Of course” she chuckles. “What can I do for you?”

“Well I have some meds to pick up,” reaching into his bag pulling out the now crumpled pad paper. 

She grabs the sheets and walks over to a back closet. It has a keypad with a code needed to be granted access. The closet is deceiving though, actually much larger than the door would suggest. While the room isn’t very wide it does go rather far back. Oikawa watches her walk up and down the shelves looking for the noted pills. Because they were a larger corporation that had partnerships with the government, they had more access to medical supplies than a typical pharmacy would have. 

Soon Yachi is back handing him two canisters, one filled with small round blue capsules the other a large white horse sized pill. “Do you need an explanation of them?”

“No, Shimizu went over the details yesterday, I’ll be good, thanks” grabbing them and shoving them back in his bag. “Are you heading to the meeting they are having this morning in the conference room?”

“Yea they want me to be introduced to the new recruits for the upcoming mission, check their stats and get some more health information for their charts. All that good stuff.” She turns around and heads back to her desk. 

Oikawa looks at his watch, “Well it’s almost time to head over. Walk together?” 

Yachi nods and they head out of the infirmary to the large conference room a couple floors up. The room is bustling with the usual faces along with a few he didn’t quite recognize. He found Iwaizumi playing on his phone in a chair towards the back and sat down in the empty one next to him. 

Daichi strolls in a few seconds later heading to the front of the room setting up behind a pedestal. “Alright everyone settle down. We have a few important things to go over, and the faster we get through it, the faster everyone can get back to work.” 

The room shuffles a little as everyone gets settled and becomes quiet, all eyes staring ahead waiting for the news. Everyone had been a bit unsettled recently with many departments not having much work to do at the time, but that would all be changing with a new mission. 

Daichi clears his throat and begins, “Well it is officially time to start doing the main work for our next mission, so a couple things to go over. As you all know from the statement that was sent out last week, Director Washijō wants this mission up by the end of next month. This still leaves us plenty of time to get things together on our side, but isn’t too long to where our crews on Mars will be struggling without their restock of supplies. Obviously this is to replace the mission we just lost. However we are cutting things a little close, which is why this needs to be done quickly and efficiently.” The room becomes uneasy, what happened with the last mission still remained a touchy subject. Daichi recognizing this and quickly moves on. “So here are the new recruits that will be on the next shuttle up,” pointing over to the wall where four men stood. 

The first was an owl-like looking man with spiky white and black hair named Bokuto Koutarou. He looked very eager to be there bouncing on his toes with a large smile plastered to his face. Next to him was Akaashi Keiji who was slightly smaller with dark features and a serious expression. Third was a man with a smirk on his face who looked like he just rolled out of bed. He was introduced as Kuroo Tetsurou. And lastly- Kozume Kenma. Kozume was much shorter than the others and had most of his hair pulled back in a low bun which showed off just a hint of old bleach. With sharp calculating eyes he scanned the room before looking back down at his phone. 

Oikawa leans over to Iwaizumi and whispers, “Why are there four? We only ever send up three.” Iwaizumi looks just as confused and shrugs in response. Whatever the reason was, I’m sure eventually they would all find out. The next few weeks would be busy for everyone and that meant they would all be spending a lot of time together training and going over everything needed for a successful mission. The thought twists a little in Oikawa’s stomach. 

The meeting only lasted another 30 min and then everyone was off rushing to their corresponding departments. Oikawa now back in his office sits at his desk rubbing at his temples to help ease the headache that started sometime during the meeting. He reached for the bag to see if he could find some relief dumping most of the loose contents onto his desk. A few pens and pencils roll out along with scraps of paper, a small notebook, and a pack of gum all followed by the prescription bottles Yachi had given him not too long ago. Frowning he picks up the bottles and analyzes their contents a little more. One was a generic sleeping pill and the other was something with a long complicated name but he knew was an antidepressant. Sighing he opened the cap and fished out one of the pills popping it into his mouth, “Bottoms up”. Oikawa reached over to his silent computer and powered it on. It had been awhile since he had checked in with the crew, since before his little absence, and he was itching to see how they were doing. He was honestly shocked it took him this long to call. He hit a few keys and within a few moments he was listening to a dial tone that would connect him with the ship. The screen flickered and focused on a worn out Hanamaki. 

“How are you doing there, Makki?”

“We are doing good, all things considering,” he laughs. “But really nothing too bad, we certainly have plenty of supplies so we will be set for awhile” 

A chill runs down Oikawa’s spine, “I’m going to fix this Makki.”

“I know you will, if anyone can it’s going to be you.” 

“I’m sorry Makki, I really am. I got a little delayed but I’m back now and I’ll be figuring this all out—”

“Oikawa! I know what happened, Iwaizumi filled me in with everything. Don’t worry, I know you’ll figure it out okay? Stop stressing.”

“How can you trust me so easily? How can you be so relaxed?” This shifted Hanamiki’s demeanor a bit, but he continued to smile. 

“Tooru you are the most stubborn person I know, and prideful. One little upset isn’t going to stop you. Now if it was anyone else I would be a bit worried,” he laughed. 

“Right…Well how is our Tobio-chan holding up?” 

“Oh you know, the same as always; annoying.” This brought a chuckle from the both of them. They chatted a little longer before signing off. It was time to officially get to work. This wouldn’t be an easy feat; not only did he have to plan and route the trajectory for the new mission, but he needed to find a solution. The next few weeks would be a test for Oikawa.


	4. Chapter 4

42 Days Until Take-Off

Iwaizumi was fiddling with some equipment on the floor when he looked up to see Kuroo, Bokuto and Kozume walk into the training center later that afternoon. 

“You must be Iwaizumi, I’m Kuroo, nice to officially meet you,” Kuroo says announcing their presence.

“Hey, hey, hey!”

“Bokuto, calm down will ya.”

Iwaizumi stands up and walks to the center of the room where the three have stopped, “Weren’t there four of you? Where is the other one?”

“Oh Akaashi? No he doesn’t go up in missions, his vision is terrible. He’s got the brains though!” 

“Mainly he is here to keep this one in line,” Kuroo jumps in pointing to Bokuto. 

“Hey now!” Bokuto jerks his head to look at Kuroo before punching him in the arm. 

Iwaizumi chuckles while the two go at each other and focuses on the third, who hasn’t said anything since walking in. He is doing the exact same thing he was in the conference room, staring at his phone with his thumbs racing across the screen. 

“Kozume is it? You know you’ll have to put the phone down to get some of this training done.”

He doesn’t look up but responds quietly, “I know….and call me Kenma” 

“Kenma it is,” he says stepping back and clapping his hands to get their attention. “Alright guys, no point in wasting anymore time. I’ve got all the equipment set up so why don’t you all step on over to the treadmills and we will get you all hooked up.”

There were various tests and simulations that needed to be run so Iwaizumi could get an idea of where everyone stood when it came to their physical abilities. While they had already gone through all the necessary training that was required to go into space, he still had to make sure they remained physically active and healthy in the days leading up to the mission. 

A couple hours later and the basic tests were done. The three didn’t look too worn out, with only a slight glisten of sweat beginning to form on their brows. This made Iwaizumi happy, knowing that everyone was capable of doing their job well. 

“Hey Iwaizumi, you mind if we ask you a question,” Kuroo asked as he placed the cap back on his water bottle. 

Iwaizumi could feel the atmosphere in the room change suddenly to a more serious note, “Sure what’s up?”

The three glanced at each other uneasily before Bokuto spoke up, “We wanna know what really went down with the first mission.” 

There it was, the big question. Everyone here at headquarters knew what happened but they had kept it under raps as best they could. While it was no big secret what went down, Daichi and the Director wanted to make sure it stayed silent so word didn’t get out to the press. Therefore it wasn’t a surprise that those outside of the main branch wouldn’t have a clue. All they knew was that they were needed to do a task that should have already been completed. And no one was going to ask questions when they were finally being given a chance to go up in space and do what they had been training years for. 

Sighing Iwaizumi leans up against the wall and rubs at his eyes before beginning, “Well I guess it’s been almost two months since the mission first went up, nothing out of the ordinary. It’s objective was meant to do exactly what you guys are going up for. Restocking the base with necessary supplies and then turn around and head back home. Pretty run of the mill stuff. They were almost reaching the half way point when something in their path changed. With the data we are able to get, this is something that hardly ever happens.”

Iwaizumi peers up at the others, the three of them intently listening to his every word, “Anyway, it happened to be a bigger change than any of us had ever experienced. Somehow an asteroid field had moved into the planned trajectory and wasn’t detected until they were flying smack dab into it. From what I heard they did everything to manually control around it but at some point their hydraulic system got completely knocked off and one thing after the other, they were kicked off course. Normally this wouldn’t be the end of the world but after checking to make sure everyone was okay on board they realized that their tracking device was also knocked off so we don’t know exactly where in space they are…” he trails off. 

“I see…And how does an Oikawa fit into this?” Kuroo asked. 

This question shocked Iwaizumi, “What about Oikawa?”

“We may have just been introduced to the team, but we have been on base for the past several days. We’ve heard things.” 

Iwaizumi was not expecting this question at all. He shoves his hands into his hair trying to think where to begin. 

“We don’t mean to pry,” Kenma offers clearly seeing how Iwaizumi is struggling to find an answer right away. 

“No it’s fine,” Iwaizumi straightens back up, “if you guys are only going to be hearing things around the building I’d rather you guys at least know they truth.” 

After another brief pause, he starts again. “One of Oikawa’s tasks for the missions is setting up the trajectory and their directed paths. He’s done plenty of training for it. He knows how to read the data that comes in from the various satellites we have that look for any potential hazards and he’s done a few years of research on asteroid patterns and movements. So when this happened, he took it personally. What happened was a total fluke though and it was something that no one could have predicted, not even a genius like him. The first few weeks after it happened I don’t think he hardly slept and well he overworked himself until he broke under the pressure. No one here blames him, but he hasn’t forgiven himself for it.” 

The three are quiet but nod their heads in understanding. This wasn’t the first time they had heard of someone breaking under the pressure in their line of work. 

They didn’t have many questions after that so they began helping break down the equipment and clean up the gym for the day and the three headed out. That left Iwaizumi to himself and his thoughts that remained on Oikawa. He hoped that the next couple weeks didn’t lead him on the same self-destructive path, and if it did, he hoped he could catch him before he fell too deep.

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I hope everyone is enjoying it so far, still a work in progress. Would love to hear what everyone thinks!


	5. Chapter 5

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Kind of a short chapter again, but hope you enjoy.

35 Days Until Take-Off

It had only been a week since being back to work and Oikawa was already getting frustrated. At himself, at the data that never showed any solutions, and recently at Iwaizumi. Even though the two lived together, they used to always drive separately. Mostly because Oikawa always insisted on staying much later than Iwaizumi. But since being back Iwaizumi had refused to let Oikawa go on his own. This meant that at the end of the day, instead of spending more time analyzing data and charts, Iwaizumi was dragging Oikawa out of his office kicking and screaming. 

Oikawa looked down at his watch; he had about an hour until Iwaizumi came looking for him. He leaned back rubbing the heels of his hands into his eyes, he was tired. Not physically but mentally. Work seemed to be going in slow motion. While he was doing everything needed, it seemed like it took him twice as long as usual and that meant leaving only a little time to work on something that wasn’t the current mission. It had to be the meds he was on, it was the only logical reason. But the only way that he could think of to give him more time was to find a way to get to work without Iwaizumi. Maybe then could he finally find a solution. 

There was no point in wasting anymore time though so he turned back to the computer and the growing files on his desk and continued to plot things out. Thankfully for him, with their line of work weekends weren’t normal days off and he at least knew he could get in a few extra days of work. 

32 Days Until Take-Off

When Oikawa walked into the kitchen after getting ready for work Iwaizumi was sitting in his usual spot, sipping tea and reading the paper. He couldn’t help but smile, he liked how consistent his best friend was. 

“You ready to go Lazy-kawa? I swear you take the longest to get ready,” Iwaizumi asked without looking up from whatever article he was engrossed in. 

“Rude Iwa-chan. You know I can’t leave without looking my best. I can’t disappoint my admirers.” 

“You’re an idiot” 

Oikawa just sticks out his tongue, he was used to Iwaizumi picking on him for his longer beauty rituals. 

His flippant remarks didn’t last long, it was time to get to business. “Look Iwa, with this week being the run through for the next mission, I’m going to take my own car to work.” 

This got Iwaizumi’s attention and he finally looked up from his paper. “What do you mean?”

Oikawa walked over to where his bag laid on the counter and pretended to check the contents. He always found it hard to go against Iwaizumi. “I just need to spend a little extra time getting prepared for later this week.” Glancing back up at Iwaizumi, “The trial run is in three days and I need to make sure everything is ready.”

“I don’t know Oikawa, I think you can get everything done in a normal shift,” looking back down to fold his paper and finishing whatever was left in his mug before getting up to place it in the sink. 

This was his time to put his foot down, when he didn’t have to worry about Iwaizumi’s eyes boring into him. “No I’m sorry I have to stay longer the next few days, we can start back together after okay?”

Iwaizumi finally turns around and squints at Oikawa like he was trying to read his insides. He didn’t answer right away, just continues to stare some more, Oikawa thought he could almost see his thoughts flying behind his squinted eyes. After what felt like a lifetime he finally answered. “Fine, just till it’s done, then it’s back to us together.”

He was surprised that he gave in so easily but wasn’t going to question it now. “Your the best Iwa-chan! I’ve got to go!” He grabs his bag and rushes out the door before given the chance to change his mind. Once in his car he lets out a breath he didn’t realize he was holding, one problem down he thought.


	6. Chapter 6

29 Days Until Take-Off

Officially less than a month until take off. This was the beginning of crunch time, not that the almost two weeks weren’t already crazy with having to plan a mission on such little time. But these remaining four weeks was the time that they could go over any plans that needed changing and made sure everything would run smoothly. If you took out the stress of what today brought, Oikawa found it to be one of his favorites. The technology for space exploration had really grown over the past several years and one of the more recent tools was the ability to do a mock trial. It was like running a large scale virtual reality that would take in all the data and spit out an exact replica of what the mission would go through. 

Oikawa had gotten to work two hours before the usual time to do any last minute checks, crunching more numbers until he was absolutely sure that all precautions were taken. He wasn’t going to let this one be a failure. He was going through it one more time when Suga knocked on his office door.

Oikawa jumped to attention to see the skinny lean man with silver hair standing in the doorway, his beauty mark on his cheek being the only imperfection on his otherwise smooth face. What great genes. 

“Mock time is coming up, you ready?” He asked.

“Suga you can’t come in scaring a man like that.” 

He grins sheepishly, “I knocked.”

Oikawa laughs and rolls his eyes, “Everything should be good to go, I was just double checking….or more so triple checking on my end.”

Suga walks over and peers over Oikawa’s shoulder as he continues to feverishly hit the keys on his computer. “Your’e overthinking, I’m sure it’s all just fine.”

Oikawa just frowns as he clicks for one more run through. A green box pops up confirming everything was imported correctly. 

“See what did I tell you,” Suga pats Oikawa’s shoulder, “now let’s go, we can’t be late.”

When Suga and Oikawa make it to the pseudo control room, it’s bustling as various teams set up their stations inputting their information into the system. There were five rows making up the room with each individual station getting two to three computers each. The wall that the rows faced had a giant screen that would have a “live” look at the mission. When the simulation begins, the screen would split into two live feeds. On the left side would be a view of the makeshift capsule where Bokuto, Kuroo, and Kenma would be going through their own required steps. It would also provide the crews health stats along with diagnostics of the shuttle. On the right side would be an outside view of the shuttle so those in the control room could see what was going on with the mission as a whole. Oikawa and Suga split up; Suga heading one row down while Oikawa stayed at the top row. He didn’t work with a specific team and found the lone computer in the corner that was meant for inputting the trajectory. He hovered over his desk too nervous to sit down and began inputting all his numbers into the system. 

Ten minutes in and everyone was about ready to go, the room buzzing with excitement. The screen ahead flickered for a second before Daichi showed up and the room went silent. While he wasn’t physically in the room, he was watching from an observation deck that overlooked the control room. 

“Hello everyone, I hope you are all ready for the first test run of the mission. Everyone is set up inside the capsule, and I see from where I’m at that everyone is ready to go down there. So without further ado, let’s get this rolling.” 

Just as quickly as his image appeared it was gone replaced with the split view. Oikawa could see Bokuto, Kuroo, and Kenma strapped into their seats waiting on cues for them to begin pressing whatever buttons that were needed to put their test run into play. While everyone got busy on their stations Oikawa just waited with bated breath. Most of his role gets done before the mission, all he needs to do at this point was input it, which he had done, and then watch it play out in case anything needed to be changed or altered. He finally sat down in the chair and began watching everyone. Their movements looked so instinctual like they had been doing this all their lives; it was mesmerizing to watch. 

The mock trial was going well so far, 30 minutes in and the crew was up having successfully transitioned from earths gravitational pull to the moons. In real time, this part of the mission would have taken a bit longer, but for trial purposes things were sped up just a tad. It was now time to focus on executing the Lunar Orbit Insertion maneuver. Oikawa sat up more in his chair, this is where his data would really start to come into play. He could see Kenma fiddling with some controls manipulating Oikawa’s data and soon enough they were off again. Everything looked good and Oikawa could feel himself breathe a little along with the rest of the room. This was when the simulation really sped up. If they sat here for how long it would really take, they would be here for months, but of course they didn’t have that time so the speed was ticked up and it would only stop when they got close to landing. The only other time it would stop was if an error occurred. 

One hour. That’s how long before the simulation stops for landing. That’s all that Oikawa needed for his part of the mission to be fully successful. If it could get them to Mars, it would get them back. But only 25 minutes in, and that’s when everything went wrong. Oikawa was brought to attention when the room was filled with a blaring siren and was flushed in red light every second as the emergency lights blinked. He looked down at his computer and error box after error box began popping up. 

No this couldn’t be happening again. Oikawa didn’t understand. He put everything in right, he ran these numbers over and over again. How was something going wrong? How was he the reason for a mission to fail again? Panic was rising inside of him, he could almost feel the bile reaching the back of his throat but before he could react he felt his body being pulled away from his computer and pushed against the wall. Matsukawa’s hands gripping into his collar, a look of pure rage on his face. This was an expression he had never seen on his coworkers face, and it scared him. 

“Dammit Oikawa are you completely helpless?!” Matsukawa growls glaring at him, “Are you trying to get another team lost in space, huh?”

Oikawa couldn’t respond just stare wide eyed back at him. This outburst caused everyone to stop what they were doing, ignoring the blaring sounds and red lights that continued to go off in the room, all eyes on them. In a second Suga is there, hands on Matsukawa trying to pry him off Oikawa. 

“Come on, that’s enough. He doesn’t need you yelling at him.”

“Doesn’t he?! Maybe that will help him realize how much of a screw up he is. You shouldn’t be on this mission. You ruined the last one, you sent Makki and the others to their death. You hear me?! This is your fucking fault!” He spits. 

Oikawa could feel the heat in his cheeks and as much as he just wanted to run away he couldn’t get himself to budge an inch frozen up against the wall. Even if Matsukawa wasn’t holding him up against it, he didn’t think he could move anyway, the pure fury coming off him would simply be enough force to hold him. The moment didn’t last though, the lights finally clicked back to normal and the blaring sirens that were on finally quit leaving the room in a deafening silence. Daichi quickly made an entrance on the top balcony that overlooked the operations staring down at them. “That’s enough you two.” He turns his attention to the rest of the room, “We’re calling it a day, clean this up and head home everyone. We will work back on this tomorrow.” And just like that he’s gone. 

Matsukawa stared at him for a moment longer, jaw tensing, then finally releases him turning around to walk away. 

“I’m sorry Mattsun, I..” He stutters not knowing what he could say to make it better. But Matsukawa doesn’t give him another second to think of anything else. He comes barreling back and swings his fist connecting it with Oikawa’s face. 

Matsukawa just stares down at Oikawa where he slid to the floor, “Just shut up Oikawa.” Then he’s gone walking out of the room leaving everyone to just stare at one another in shock. 

Suga sits next to him, concern in his eyes, “Are you okay?”

Oikawa doesn’t answer though, how could he be okay? Everything that Matsukawa said was true. He needed to get out of there before the tears that he could feel building in his eyes spilt over. He wiped the blood that was dripping from his nose on the back of his hand and gets up. Avoiding everyone’s eyes he walks out the door and runs to his office the second he is far enough from prying eyes.


End file.
